


A Night Together

by im_the_king_of_the_ocean



Series: Into the Pieces-Verse [3]
Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: Gen, Halloween, Implied Past Dromura, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Trick or Treating, but he's not alive in this fic, draal is reya's father
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-23 19:42:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21086753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_the_king_of_the_ocean/pseuds/im_the_king_of_the_ocean
Summary: Reya goes trick-or-treating with her mother, Nomura, who she only gets to see on Halloween, and her grandfather, Kanjigar, who takes care of her the rest of the year.





	A Night Together

The man dressed as a young Obi-Wan Kenobi halts.His puts a firm hand on the shoulder of his charge, keeping her next to him.His eyes narrow as he surveys the neighborhood.Nothing seems out of place (and he’s been through enough of these Halloween Nights to know what constitutes normal for them).He determines that they’re safe (or, as safe as they can be) and removes his hand from his granddaughter’s shoulder.

She looks up at him.“Is something wrong, grandpa?”

Outside of the fact they shouldn’t actually be here?No.

Kanjigar shakes his head.“No, Reya.I was simply getting my bearings.Remember, we have to be careful on these nights.”

Reya nods her head vigorously.“I know the rules.”

Stay close.Be careful to maintain her disguise, no matter how uncomfortable she finds her glamour mask.Don’t interact much with the human children.Especially don’t say anything to them that could be construed as odd, off, or _wrong_.It is of the utmost importance that no one realize they don’t belong.

The two start walking again.Reya sticks close to her grandfather’s side, but she can’t help but glance at the human children rushing about the streets, approaching houses in the hopes of receiving candy.They’re so different from herself, from trollkind in general.It’s hard to believe she shares a relation with them.

_Half a relation_, Reya reminds herself.She’s not fully part-human, after all.She’s part changeling, which is half-troll, half-human, which makes her _half_-half-human.Reya thinks for a minute, remembering her fractions.So, that means she’s roughly a fourth human?She keeps forgetting.It doesn’t seem important most of the time.At least, not to her.She kicks a pebble along the sidewalk.It’s certainly important to everyone else.

For as long as Reya can remember, secrets have been a part of her life.There are things she knows.Things she _can’t _ever tell someone about.Ever.

She can’t tell anyone back home in Trollmarket about her shape-shifting abilities.She can never let them see her change her colors.She must always have the exact same coloration out in public.

She must never let slip that her mother is still alive, instead of gone like her father.If she ever talks about her mother, she _must _stick to the story Grandpa Kanjigar taught her.If anyone were to find out her mother is a changeling, horrible things will happen.

Reya doesn’t really understand all of it, though she adheres to the Rules regardless.She doesn’t see how she’s so different from the other whelps, just because she’s part-changeling.Changelings are trolls, too.They started out as trolls.Sure, they were changed a little, but they are still themselves deep down.It’s like how she can change her coloration or make slight alterations to her appearance.No matter what she alters, she will always be Reya.

_Other trolls, they don’t see it that way,_ Grandpa Kanjigar told her over and over again.His face would always shift to a solemn expression._A long, long time ago there was a war and, _he usually hesitated there, _changelings did horrible things._

_ Because they were bad?_Reya asked once when she was very small, scared that that meant she was destined to be bad too.

_Because that’s what they were taught to do, _Kanjigar reassured her._You are nothing like them, Reya._He always hugged her close during these moments._You are kind, curious, and good._

_ But, my mother?_

_ Is complicated._

Reya and Kanjigar reach the safe house.Its windows are dark.No candy-seeking children approach it, but the two of them do.Kanjigar knocks.A special knock that was agreed upon a long, long time ago.

A woman with green eyes opens the door.Her green eyes are the only constant trait Reya knows about her mother.Every year they come to visit her, she looks drastically different.Reya knows her mother has to have lots of disguises.Like Reya herself, she must hide her true nature from troll kind.But, unlike her daughter, Nomura must also hide from other changelings, who would seek to harm her if they ever found out that she was in contact with Reya and her grandfather.

Nomura squats down in front of her daughter.Her eyes search Reya, looking for the true appearance behind all the magic concealments.Reya knows her mother isn’t the most affectionate person, but she does love her.If she didn’t, Reya believes Nomura wouldn’t try to really see her.

“He teaching you well?”Nomura asks.

Reya nods.“We had a lesson on throwing knives yesterday.”She pouts.“But I’m not allowed to dip them in poison yet.”

Nomura smirks.She tussles Reya’s hair between her bony horns.“That’s my girl.”She stands back up, and makes eye contact with Kanjigar.“Do they suspect anything?”

“No.Yours?”

“Nothing.”

“Good.Let’s get going.”Kanjigar gestures.Nomura exits her safe house and locks the door behind her.

She hands Reya a large pillowcase.“You’re going to need this.The houses around here are giving away a lot of candy this year.”

Reya takes the pillowcase.She smiles at her mother.“We’ll get even more since our costumes match.”She’d planned it herself.Her, her mother, and her grandfather are all costumed as _Star Wars _characters.

After a troll traded Kanjigar old tapes of the films, Reya had become obsessed with them, with the idea of an entire galaxy full of strange beings that all got along with each other.More or less.Sure, there was technically fighting in the movies, but no one batted an eyelash at how a lot of background characters were different species.

Reya, quietly, wants to live in that galaxy. 

Also to have a lightsaber and pretty much all of Padme Amidala’s clothes.

Since she can’t have any of that, Reya settled for dressing up as a mashup of Leia, Luke, and Han Solo (hair like the first, with a stone crystal cut to glow like the second’s lightsaber hanging from her belt, and the general aesthetic of the third).She’d badgered and prodded her grandfather until he agreed to set his glamour mask to give him an appearance like Obi-Wan Kenobi’s.Then, Reya got Kanjigar to contact Nomura ahead of time to make sure she dressed up as Padme.

Reya reaches the first house.She knocks at the door.Her breath momentarily catches in her throat as it opens.She wonders if this is going to be the moment she, and her family, are found out.But then the human smiles, says “aren’t you just the most adorable thing”, and gives her a fistful of candy.

She gets to move on, return to her grandfather and mother, and pretend for the rest of the night that they live a happy, peaceful life with none being the wiser.


End file.
